The 21st century poses new and multiple challenges to public services, including an increased number of poor people, widening inequality, jobless economic growth, multi-dimensional security threats, persistent food insecurity and the irreversible impact of climate change. Read to discover what our robot, Athena, thinks the future of inequality could be.

What is changing?

Summary

AnalysisSystems map: The systems map shows the many forces creating inequality in the world as well as the many opportunities, barriers and threats to solving this issue. Poverty, climate change, population growth, wealth disparities, technological and educational disadvantages threaten millions of peoples' future.

Radar chart: For many, access to clean energy, modern technologies and banking systems are key issues that pundits and experts point to as being the best way to reduce inequalities.

UN SDG's: But, Athena's analysis of the UN Sustainable Development Goals shows that reduced inequality is the least likely goal to be met any time soon. In fact, it's almost off the above chart! We are more likely to see elimination of global poverty and gender equality before all inequalities are solved.

Graph-It: A new trendline representation of Graph-It continues this line of reasoning showing global education and welfare, both key drivers of inequality improvement are never forecast to be in the top right quadrant of the graph before 2038.

Sentiment: Expert and pundit opinion show real concern that rising inequality between the rich and the poor in certain countries will have deleterious effects on populations and political elites in the future. A world-wide recession could cause major unrest in many countries.

Pie Charts: Attention to inequality is of medium intensity across all sectors but energy, real estate, healthcare, support services and financial services companies are seeing the opportunity for growth in under-developed, poorer countries. Unfortunately, Governments' lag well behind in tackling this issue and any tipping point is not likely until around 2040, if at all.

Countries: Inequality is not evenly distributed across the globe. Top countries for inequality include Kenya, the United Kingdom, Latvia, China, South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia, Germany, United States and France. Interestingly, most of those on this list would be considered rich countries. Calls for income redistribution in those countries are high in experts and pundits minds.

Heat map: The Heat Map shows that inequality is mostly a political issue especially in Europe and economic challenges placed second in most regions.

SWOT: Lastly, this new chart shows how the opportunities to reduce inequality far outweigh the threats and that the current weaknesses can be turned into strengths by those sectors and governments that seize the nettle and make tackling inequality as important as their focus on sustainability and growth.

VISUALS

System map
The systems map shows the many forces creating inequality in the world as well as the many opportunities, barriers and threats to solving this issue. Poverty, climate change, population growth, wealth disparities, technological and educational disadvantages threaten millions of peoples' future.

Radar
For many, access to clean energy, modern technologies and banking systems are key issues that pundits and experts point to as being the best way to reduce inequalities.

that reduced inequality is the least likely goal to be met any time soon. In fact, it's almost off the above chart! We are more likely to see elimination of global poverty and gender equality before all inequalities are solved.

Graph-It
This new trendline representation of Graph-It continues this line of reasoning showing global education and welfare, both key drivers of inequality improvement are never forecast to be in the top right quadrant of the graph before 2038.

Sentiment
Expert and pundit opinion show real concern that rising inequality between the rich and the poor in certain countries will have deleterious effects on populations and political elites in the future. A world-wide recession could cause major unrest in many countries.

Pie Charts
Attention to inequality is of medium intensity across all sectors but energy, real estate, healthcare, support services and financial services companies are seeing the opportunity for growth in under-developed, poorer countries. Unfortunately, Governments' lag well behind in tackling this issue and any tipping point is not likely until around 2040, if at all.

Geographies

Inequality is not evenly distributed across the globe1. Top countries for inequality include Kenya, the United Kingdom, Latvia, China, South Africa, South Korea, Indonesia, Germany, United States and France. Interestingly, most of those on this list would be considered rich countries. Calls for income redistribution in those countries are high in experts and pundits minds.1 Excludes poverty

Heat map

The Heat Map shows that inequality is mostly a political issue especially in Europe and economic challenges placed second in most regions.

SWOT

Lastly, this new chart shows how the opportunities to reduce inequality far outweigh the threats and that the current weaknesses can be turned into strengths by those sectors and governments that seize the nettle and make tackling inequality as important as their focus on sustainability and growth.

Evidence

Extracted forecasts found by Athena and linked back to the original articles, reports and PowerPoints (Insights) that she found can be found below using this search term:

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Sources
Athena used the sources below as the top ones to create this report and determined which embedded forecasts are included in this Trend Alert. She found 779 forecasts in seconds on 8th November 2018 to allow us to publish this report in less than ninety minutes. She can turn these into PowerPoint slides and Audio files in minutes too as you wish, or we can prepare a full customized and professionally written brief for you to order covering all these forecasts.

Athena
Athena does show duplicates to aid your understanding of themes as well as contradictory forecasts. She may also show near-duplicates. You can speed read past the duplicates and near-duplicates if you wish, though the latter may show additional information. You can use the contradictory, and likely uncertain forecasts she finds to imagine different scenarios. The future is unpredictable, but we can examine the possibilities and choose our preferable future from the choices she presents.

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Athena is apolitical. She will report forecasts from different viewpoints however distasteful that might be to our own values. Wearing rose-colored glasses is not her purpose; reporting potential futures is. So, we recommend you check her veracity before responding to her extracted forecasts.
Just like humans, Athena can be fallible. Do recognize that you and your associates are biased too. But whereas you tire, make mistakes and only recognize what interests you, she does not. She might miss or misinterpret as you do, but with far less frequency and she'll take uncomfortable truths and alternative ideas in her stride. But, please let us know if you feel her bias can be reduced. We want to do our best for you. And, as with any research, you should check and triangulate her findings for yourself.

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